Marcos Kremer

Capped by Argentina before he had played a single game for the Under-20s, and still only 29.

Marcos Kremer played a Test for Argentina before he had played a single game for the Under-20s. The senior debut came against the United States in February 2016. The age-grade call-up followed three months later.

He was 18 at the time. That is most of what you need to know about how fast Argentina moved him.

Kremer is a flanker for Clermont, 1.95m and 110kg, and much of his career has been spent covering second row as well. The tackling is the point of him. It arrives late in the movement and it hurts, and the height makes him a lineout option on top of that.

The route through was quick and unusual. Los Espinillos at 15, Club Salto Grande at 16, then a senior debut for Club Atlético del Rosario at 17. By early 2016, aged 18, he was starting most weeks. The Jaguares brought him in to train with the national group, and he made his Super Rugby debut against the Highlanders on 9 July 2016, still 18.

The Under-20 tournament came in between. He started all five games at the 2016 World Rugby Under 20 Championship in England, and Los Pumitas finished third, beating South Africa 49-19 in the bronze final. Ten days after that, Daniel Hourcade named him in Argentina’s 33-man Rugby Championship squad.

On 14 November 2020, Argentina beat the All Blacks for the first time. Kremer started. It remains the single result his generation gets measured against.

He now has 83 caps.

At Clermont he is one of the few genuinely international-grade forwards in the squad, alongside Rob Simmons in the second row. The competition around him is younger and lighter, which tends to mean more minutes rather than fewer.

What to watch is discipline. Kremer plays close to the line and has been penalised and cited across his career for it. When he stays inside it he is one of the harder men in the Top 14 to run at.